i think the '61 Chevy in the oncoming lane (behind the '57 Ford and '58 Chevy) is the newest car, and probably dates the photo.

The '61s are the newest, besides the Chevy, there's a Ford wagon going the other way near it a Pontiac approaching halfway up the road and the compact Buick Special parked on the right. If you look behind the bus in the lane going away you can just make out another '61 Chevy.

At Hemmings.com they think the old Hudson and the Ford near it are the oldest cars (ca. '52-'53).

I'm struck by the lack of imports, aside from the lone VW. Madison is a big college town, where are the VeeDubs, Volvos, Sprites or MGs. It's also odd that there aren't any motorcycles. In my (much smaller) college town Triumphs, BSAs, Moto Guzzis and Nortons were all the rage in the early 60s.

Well, if Madison was like Chicago and Milwaukee in 1961, you were much more likely to see a Rambler American than an import. Oddly, I recall from my youth back then that an import that was relatively popular in the Chicago area was the TR-3. I saw more of them than MG's or Austin Healey's. There were some VW's of course, but they really seemed more common later in the 60's in that area. Another unusual thing, at least in the suburbs, was that the more popular motorcycles seemed to be Asian crotch rocker models as the 60's progressed.

I have no doubt of that, since they were made in Kenosha WI but I don't see any Ramblers in that Madison photo either. :confuse:

My college town was in Western NY State, so halfway between the import heavy East Coast and the Mid West but it featured an amazing variety of imports both two and four wheeled. One kid had a badly beat up Porsche Speedster and my roomie had a TR-3, another roomie had a hardtop (FHC) MG-AOf course there were lots of VWs and Ghias but we even had such oddities as a Lancia Appia, some DKWs, Volvos, Saabs and an Alfa Giulietta Spider that got traded in for a Mustang in '64. It was the Golden Age of Euro imports, I remember it fondly.

Yup that's a 1967 Fiat Dino Spider unfortunately with a lot of issues. Frankly I don't have any idea what a good one is worth but it's one of my favorite designs of the era. I hope it goes to a good home.

The wealthier Chicago suburbs did have more imports back then. Primarily MB, but more than a few Jaguar's as well. Chicago was a big GM market back in those days. Starting in the late 50's you'd sometimes see an Opel or Vauxhall, usually wagons initially. The Opel product line expanded and went on into the early 70's I believe, but Vauxhall didn't last near as long. For whatever reason, Pontiac didn't seem to have as many established dealerships compared to Buick in the area, so that may have been the reason. Of course, another factor playing in here was that Chicago was a "large" car market like most of the Midwest which probably inhibited import sales a bit.

I agree. It was an interesting era for imports. Lots of different and neat looking stuff back then. Many sold out of little hole in the wall dealers in my area at least, including some that sold a whole gamut of different brands. Sometimes an import brand dealer might even just by part of a gas station. In the late 50's/early 60's Willy's/Jeep dealerships also were like that and really Rambler was just finally getting modern dealerships to compete with D3. Japan dealers kind of started out like those Euro dealers too a decade later.

I got only a quick glimpse of a small photo, and can't seem to get back to it. But one of the mystery cars is a Citroen DS19 or later, or an ID19. I lived in Holland from 1956 to 1967, and had a few interesting cars, one of which was the ID19, the less luxurious version of the DS. I loved the car. Although acceleration wasn't great, you could achieve very high point to point average speeds. I remember driving fast and silently in the dark from The Hague to the Nurburgring to see a race, an open mug of coffee sitting at my elbow on the wide door sill.

Prior to the time when the Dutch autoweg was directly connected to the German autobahn, and there were several miles of two lane road near the border, my wife and I drove door to door from The Hague to Kitzbuhel, Austria, to ski, at just over 100 km/hour average speed in our ID.

I also had a 1957 Porsche Speedster during that period, and for another winter vacation, we drove the same route in the Speedster at the same average speed.

I also bought a new 1962 Volvo 544 that we drove, with two little kids, in 1967 from The Hague to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, via Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait. In 1979 I shipped that Volvo back to the States, and my daughter drove the car until around 1990 when it became hard to find parts for it.

You're asking the wrong guy. I thought they looked odd, like something you'd see an a car with more flamboyant styling, the '59 Ford being one of that year's most conservative designs (not a bad thing IMO).

Now that you mention it those hubcaps would look at home on a '60 or '61 Dodge. :confuse:

Most likely that is a 90 Town Car, considering it had "turbine" wheels. Little known fact the 90 still had the good 'ol 5.0, the 4.6 didn't make it until 91.

The 90-97 was a very popular car. The 98-02 is generally unloved, smaller trunk and no hood ornament. My Grandfather had a "rare" 98 LTC Touring sedan. It basically had the Handling and Performance package from the Crown Vic and a steep rear axle. Fastest Panther I'd ever driven, and handled decent for what it was.